Luc Moreau recently reported on the current status of the W3C‘s Provenance Data Model. He wrote, “The Provenance Working Group began its activities with a charter naming some 17 concepts relevant to provenance, such as resource, process execution, use, derivation, version, etc. For the first 3 months leading to our first face to face meeting, we debated definitions for these concepts. Importantly, for the social cohesion of the group, we developed a common vocabulary shared by members to communicate.”

Moreau added, “Following the first face to face meeting, editors were tasked to produce a concrete document, against which the group could formally raise issues and make concrete proposals. In October, this document was released as a first public working draft. We were aware of its limitations, but it served an important purpose: it was setting the direction and scope of the model we were proposing to standardize.”

Read more here.